Experts Explore New Ways to Protect Marine Mammals

Regional Experts Explore New Dimensions in Marine Mammal Conservation During a Three Day Consultation to Map Critical Marine Mammal Habitats.

Humpback Froggie

May 09, 2011

Miami,
9th May, 2011:
Marine mammal and spatial planning experts gathered in Miami today for a three
day consultation to map the critical habitats which serve as “stepping stones”
in the migration routes of marine mammals along the north south corridor of the
Wider Caribbean Region (WCR). UNEP’s
Caribbean Environment Programme (UNEP-CEP), in collaboration with UNEP’s
Division of Environmental Policy and Implementation, and the Regional Activity
Center for the Protocol on Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW), convened
a panel of experts in the region for the first phase of a biodiversity
initiative funded by the Government of Spain.

Recognizing the importance of protected areas as a
key tool for resource management and biodiversity conservation, the Government
of Spain created an initiative in 2008 referred to as “LifeWeb”. Within this framework, a strategic
partnership was initiated with UNEP in 2009, with the key goal of improving the
management of existing protected areas and extending the network to new areas. The activities under this initiative in the
Wider Caribbean will focus on: “Broad-Scale Marine Spatial Planning of Mammal
Corridors and Protected Areas in the Wider Caribbean and Southeast and
Northeast Pacific”.

As marine mammals travel across boundaries, there
is a need to evaluate what tools/data sets/management strategies are needed to
implement transboundary marine mammal management, and how these are distinct
from those techniques used for traditional in-situ marine species conservation,
while still using marine protected areas as an important management tool.

The present gathering of experts in Miami will
integrate data currently available, and identify what gaps remain specific to
essential habitats and regional-scale migration routes. GIS analysis and mapping will record the key
human uses and threats in these areas (fisheries impacts, shipping lanes,
coastal and offshore infrastructure development, noise pollution,
tourism-related activities such as whale watching, etc.), in order to enable
the visualization of regional maps of marine mammal migration, critical
habitats, area-based management measures and human pressures.

This workshop responds to the priorities within
the UNEP-CEP coordinated Action Plan for the Conservation of Marine Mammals in
the WCR, which was adopted by Governments of the region in 2008. The
partnership with LifeWeb aims to improve knowledge on marine mammals
distribution and threats, as well as the
capacity, governance and sustainability of marine protected areas to help
conserve these populations in the WCR. This workshop will be followed by regional
training and learning-exchanges on integrated marine management, policy
framework development and institutional strengthening, and the elaboration of
communication strategies for stakeholder outreach.

One strategy for “making the case” for trans
boundary marine mammal management will be to apply integrated marine spatial
planning and management approaches and tools in a demonstration project at the
Silver Bank Whale Sanctuary in the Dominican Republic. Building on work in the Dominican Republic
protecting humpback whale habitats as part of a regional corridor, this pilot
will involve local planners, scientists and decision-makers from relevant
line-ministries in the management of critical marine mammal habitats and
migration routes across jurisdictional boundaries.

Explaining the relevance of the workshop,
Alessandra Vanzella-Khouri, Senior Programme Officer of the Caribbean
Environment Programme’s SPAW sub-programme said: “this activity is the first
major attempt to compile, analyze and map existing data and information on
marine mammals in the region, in order
to identify critical habitats which must be protected to assist with the
conservation of some of the most vulnerable populations. Given their highly
migratory patterns, their endangered status, their dependency on very specific
breeding and feeding habitats, as well as the important economic contribution
of the whale-watching activity to some of our countries, this type of analysis and outreach is
critical for their long-term conservation”

Recognizing
the importance and value for the sustainable development of the Wider Caribbean
Region (WCR) of its fragile and vulnerable coastal and marine ecosystems,
including an abundant and mainly endemic flora and fauna, the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Caribbean Environment Programme
(CEP) in 1976 under the framework of its Regional Seas Programme.

A Caribbean Action Plan was adopted by the
Countries of the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR) and that led to the development
and adoption of the Cartagena Convention on 24 March 1983. This Convention is
the only regionally binding treaty of its kind that seeks to protect and
develop sustainably the marine environment of the WCR. Since its entry into
force on 11 October 1986, 25 of the 28 WCR countries have become Contracting Parties.

The
Convention is supported by three protocols:

· Protocol
concerning Cooperation in combating Oil Spills, which entered into force on
October 11, 1986;

· Protocol
concerning Pollution from Land-Based Sources and activities (LBS), which
entered into force on August 13, 2010.

In
addition, each Protocol is served by a Regional Activity Centre. These Centers
are based in The Netherlands Antilles (Regional Marine Pollution Emergency
Information and Training Center for the Wider Caribbean, RAC/REMPEITC) for the
Oil Spills Protocol; in Guadeloupe (RAC/SPAW) for the SPAW Protocol and in Cuba
(Centre of Engineering and Environmental Management of Coasts and Bays) and
Trinidad & Tobago (Institute of Marine Affairs) both for the LBS Protocol.

The
Regional Coordinating Unit (UNEP-CAR/RCU), established in 1986, serves as the
Secretariat to the Cartagena Convention and is based in Kingston, Jamaica. UNEP-CAR/RCU
focuses on combating marine pollution and protecting biodiversity by
facilitating the implementation of the Cartagena Convention and its Protocols
in the Wider Caribbean Region.